1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an apparatus for producing thin discs of dough which can be subsequently baked to form tortillas, pizza shells, pita bread, or the like and particularly to an apparatus for pressing such thin flat discs from a ball or patty of dough.
2. History of the Prior Art
Baked products in the form of flat discs of dough have long been utilized for the manufacture of tortillas, pizza shells, pita bread, or the like. Particularly in the case of tortillas, which are fabricated from a flour mix, it has been the common practice to fabricate the flour mix in the form of balls of dough, insert each ball of dough between a lower pressing plate and a vertically spaced upper plate, and then bring the two pressing plates into juxtaposition to squeeze the ball of dough into the desired thin disc shape. On the other hand, pizza shells are commonly formed by feeding a ball or patty of dough between the nip of two smooth-surfaced rollers which act on the dough to reduce it to the desired thickness.
The mechanization of the dough disc-forming operation is obviously desirable, and there are numerous examples in the prior art of attempts to achieve such mechanization. See for example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,397,655 to VALADEZ et al, U.S. Pat. No. 3,223,053 to JIMENEZE et al, U.S. Pat. No. 4,241,648 to LONGNECKER, and U.S. Pat. No. 4,508,025 to SCHULTZ. None of these prior art apparatus has been completely satisfactory from the standpoint of uniform thickness of the resulting dough disc, ease of removal of the pressed dough disc, and ease of cleaning dough deposits from the pressing plates which inherently adhere to the disc, which are normally heated during the pressing operation.
Additionally, prior art dough pressing systems required adjustment of the spacing of the pressing plates to accomplish any significant change in thickness and eripheral size of the pressed disc.